With 10 seconds left in another heart-stopping game against Charlotte, with the UTEP men's basketball team clinging to a two-point lead, Miner freshman Jordan Lathon made a terrible error when he illegally tried to run the baseline to in-bounds the ball.

Lathon needed less than six seconds to redeem himself in full.

Trying to guard Conference USA's second-leading scorer, Jon Davis, on a baseline drive, Lathon blocked him from behind, sending the ball out of bounds off Davis with 4.2 seconds left. Two weeks after his miracle 3-pointer beat Rice, Lathon again made the big play in a much-needed 57-53 victory over Charlotte.

The Miners improved to 7-12 overall and 2-6 in Conference USA, while a 49ers team the Miners will be competing against to qualify for the league tournament fell to 5-15, 2-7.

"J2 has that ability," freshman Nigel Hawkins said. "The next play. He's a dog, they make the right play every time. That defense was a big play."

"Jordan takes a lot of pride in his defense," coach Rodney Terry said. "That's his calling card, he's one of those guys who loves taking on the best player on the other team. These freshmen will be different players in a year or two on offense, but he's a guy who hangs his hat on defense.

"That attitude makes the other guys want to do that as well."

Defense was the key in this one, as the Miners won despite shooting 36 percent and turning the ball over 17 times. They held Charlotte to 39 percent shooting and 14 turnovers, with the difference coming at the free-throw line, where UTEP scored 19 points to Charlotte's seven.

UTEP also had a 38-28 rebounding advantage.

"They run a Princeton-type offense, they are difficult to guard, a lot of movement, a lot of back-cuts," said Paul Thomas, who had five early points, then six points, two rebounds and a block in the stretch run — enough to earn Terry's assessment that he was the player of the game. "We only had one day to prepare.

"For such a young team, we did a good job preparing," he said. "We took away a lot of their bests stuff. Our defense was superb."

Davis ended up with 23 points, two over his average, but he made just 8-of-20 shots and had five turnovers against a defensive hounding from every player UTEP put on the floor.

He missed a potential tying free throw with 26 seconds left, air balled a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 10 seconds left, then had his potential tying shot blocked by Lathan with 4.2 seconds left.

That ended up being the winning play in a game where UTEP never led by more than eight points, but never trailed in the second half. After Charlotte tied the game 43-43 with 5:06 left, Thomas scored on a three-point play, then UTEP did just enough to keep Charlotte from catching them.

"This was a big step forward," Thomas said. "Hopefully this will start a streak for us."

"The last three games were really close," said Hawkins, who had 12 points. "A lot of games have been close. It was good to come out on the right side."

If UTEP does make the Conference USA tournament, this will be one they circle.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at 546-6359; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @bretbloomquist on Twitter.